Saturday, 29 August 2009

Its a bit of a spotters paradise but even so we do enjoy the odd couple of hours every year or so.

There are very often some little treats in store:

A very early Unimog, a real dinky version. Looking inside I couldnt help wondering if the first generations of post WW2 German workers were all midgets!

The usual collection of military vehicles abounded along with classic cars and motorbikes;

A Mk 2/3 Ferret with an L37 fitted by the look of it.

Not sure what model this is just yet but it certainly looks like a 40mm, yes its a Bofors,

this bit however looked a tad bigger, 155 anyone?

Plenty of BSA bikes including one as a raffle prize, I do prefer my BSA to have a single chamber rather than a twin.

The usual collection of steam traction engines;

And the not so usual;Ofcourse not forgetting the bus spotters, there's more than a couple at work!

After all that spotting it was time to go around the shoot, mapping and numbering the feeders.

Believe it or not there is a feeder at the end of this path, yes its a path!

We drove around marking and topping as we went, 3 hours and we had managed 21. Only half way around;Tomorrow I really should get out and finish the job, I do however have plans for a syndicate bash at the clays for our families followed by a BBQ. poor admin means this takes place in my garden rather than on the wood itself. The bonus is a night in my own bed rather than slumped asleep drunk under a flysheet bitten by midges!

Friday, 28 August 2009

The mother of Caster Semenya (Womens 800 metres World Champion) has expressed her outrage at her daughter having to undergo a gender test !!She is quoted as saying "This is a real kick in the bollocks for my daughter".

Thursday, 27 August 2009

This came from a friend down under, he may not have used those contentious words just after the 9th of September 2001 but I certainly did. Dont get me wrong, I dont dislike the USA, well not anymore than I dislike anyone else, I am if anything fair, I can hate everybody evenly and equally. I didnt rejoice when the PIRA mortar bombs landed in the garden of 10 Downing Street, I merely and rather wryly remarked "now you feckers know what its like in Crossmaglen!"So I have highlighted what may seem contentious so you can understand what its like to have murdering scumbags killing and maiming their way across civilisation.

The attached are not my words, but I agree with every word and syllable. I wonder if he'll bump into any of the scum that he supported when he gets to Hell.

"It says much about humanity’s basic urge to be ruled by dynasties that Teddy Kennedy came anywhere near being elected president in 1980. Whatever his other qualities, his behaviour at Chappaquiddick eleven years earlier, where he might have been able to save Mary Jo Kopechne’s life but instead chose to save his own career by waiting until his blood/alcohol level reached a legal level, would have ruled out anyone else from becoming local rat catcher, let alone leader of the greatest nation on earth.

But after the murder of his brothers John and Bobby, Teddy became America’s atheling – until the public realised there was little good left to come out of that clan (with the exception of Arnold Schwarzenegger, married to Teddy’s niece Maria Shriver).

Kennedy was no doubt a dedicated servant of Congress and a passionate believer in combating poverty, but his lasting legacy on this side of the Atlantic was to poison Anglo-American relations for a generation. It’s not often said aloud but many British people when they first saw United 175 hit the World Trade Centre felt, alongside shock, pity and a sense of solidarity with the American people, also a feeling of “now you know what terrorism is like, will you stop funding the murder of our people?”For years Kennedy was the bang-drummer-in-chief for brainless Irish-American IRA sympathisers, dimwits who shouted “troops out of Dublin!” and sang maudlin songs from the comfort of Boston and New York, giving money for strangers 3,000 miles away to murder their neighbours.For despite the pseudo-Marxist justifications the IRA used, which was obviously lapped up by useful idiots on both sides of the Irish Sea and across the Atlantic, their goal was always ethnic cleansing against their neighbours, the people who Americans still call “the Scots-Irish”. Kennedy himself said that Ulster Protestants “should be given a decent opportunity to go back to Britain”, without in any way suggesting he would give Boston back to the Indians (or the English-Americans, for that matter) and return to Co. Wexford. He compared Britain’s presence in Ulster with America’s in Vietnam, and later forced Jimmy Carter to ban arm sales to the RUC, blackening the name of that tirelessly heroic band of men, each one of them worth a thousand spoiled Ivy League playboys.

Kennedy spoke out against violence in Northern Ireland while cosying up to IRA terrorists, the cause of the violence, ensuring Gerry Adams could visit the States in 1996 and celebrate that great festival of plastic patriotism and falseness, the American St Patrick’s Day Festival. He only later distanced himself from Sinn Fein/IRA after their goons murdered Robert McCartney and the American public woke up to the reality of “the boys”.

It’s bad manners to speak ill of the dead, before his family have got the chance to bury their loved one, but it cannot go forgotten. I’m sure Kennedy was essentially a good man and a servant of his own country, but he was certainly no friend of ours."

Do you know what I think is the worst thing about the USA?Well I'm going to tell you, the worst and possibly also the best part is that in a country with so much potential, so much naff and nastyness can eminate from such people who are also as a nation capable of being such great friends and honest to boot!

Wednesday, 26 August 2009

I have just had a call from a very well known charity asking me to donate my old clothes to starving Africans, I told them to bugg*r off because anyone that fits into my clothes cetainly isn't starving.Found by AlanThanks to Mr Free Market

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Getting ready for a large commissioning at work, I agreed to assist with either writing or reviewing the testing plan. Still it seems to be working itself out and I may be restricted to assisting!

Anyway this neatly brings us around to the subject of testing. Regulars will no doubt recall that I do enjoy handloading and testing those loads against factory ammo. I may never make a living at it but I'll certainly enjoy it.

This afternoon after the trip home the Tea Lady and I together with the sports monkey decided to do a little testing of our own.

We have been selling dummy launchers and blanks for a while, this is because we sell the excellent Dead Fowl Trainer Launcher dummies. We have often been asked how powerful these are so we decided to test them against a standard TR smooth launcher tube dummy.

Sports Monkey had made me a launcher holder to save my thumbs and wrists from a trip to A&E.

We set up the rig in Farmer Tims field;The launcher is primed with a .22 rimfire blank; And away we go;

Yellow box blanks: Tube went 50 metres, bird went 43.5 metres.

Red box blanks: Tube went 55.25 metres, bird went 47,5 metres.

Green box blanks: Tube went 67.5 metres, bird went 42 metres.

Special box of purple blanks: Tube went 52 metres, bird went 47 metres.

Mind you there was a stiff headwind of about 10 miles per hour and we launched into this, we thought the purples (designed for captive bolt slaughter guns) may have left the 6 acre field so we thought a head wind would be an advantage.

Sunday, 23 August 2009

Well maybe not quite the truth, I did snap a pic of all 6 eggs in the hen house, a full house I suppose. I collected 1 tonne of grain for the pheasants and they have made a dent in that already.

Thats a lot of grain, it did for Toni's trailer I'm afraid although I have to admit it certainly was easier using two trailers and 4 wheel drives.

The birds seem to be feathering up well and have discovered so many feeders thatt it seemed the right time to start filling the big bins.

I'll get out and plot them all and number them for the shoot map this week.

I have a busy week ahead!

Saturday evening saw me visiting a fellow stalker, a friend had seen a rifle for sale and asked if I knew the seller, well of course I did. I believe the purchase has been agreed so I may stick in a pic;

Nice isnt it, sold I'm afraid. I sit here typing this up after a day on the motorway, a trip to Dunstable for a Bowling tournament, hopefully our last!

Wednesday, 19 August 2009

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Yes it was club night, another lecture at the HBSA. US and German mountain troops of WW2.

Very interesting and I took minime along, no prizes for guessing what he was interested in;

Now I am expected to make one for him, I dont suppose a working replica will be legal so perhaps something in wood?

Still a nice collection of items to illustrate the lecture;

I strangely enough was drawn to this G33 of Czech origin which swung around nicely, make a nice deer rifle;I dont think a scope would be necessary, just some decent load development! I also happened to read about the Portugese 6.5mm x 58 Vergueiro in G&A, very interesting!

Monday, 17 August 2009

I managed to squeak in a very nice Roe Buck towards a high seat but I was impatient and saw him turn in the scrub and do a runner from about 40 yards.

John the Kiwi saw a Doe and Buck later but they werent hanging around.

If anyone ever asks why I am happy to be out in the woods even with an empty larder at the end obviously hasnt seen scenes like these;

Anyhow the weekend is when we really get stuck into the work ready for the start of the season, some work is feeding poults, some is pest control and some is combined. Mr Free Market has been very busy with the pest control;

I on the other hand delivered some feed and went armed in case I ran into a fox, there have been a few cubs loose now the harvest is ongoing! I encountered these slots and realised that I was seriously underarmed;Thats a 3" Eley AAA cartridge there and those look like cattle and damn big ones. I need to organise a stalk in there!

Friday, 14 August 2009

And breathe out, another week without being caught out!I thought before I bogoff for the weekend and go stalking (well guiding) I would leave you all with this; thanks to Josey Closey for this:The Roosterby joseyclosey » Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:29 pmTrevor was in the fertilised egg business.He had several hundred young pullets and eight or ten roosters, whose job was to fertilise the eggs.The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so Trevor could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing.Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells. The farmer's favourite rooster was old Gordon, and a very fine specimen he was too. But on this particular morning Trevor noticed old Gordon's bell hadn't rung at all!Trevor went to investigate.The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing.The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.But to farmer Trevor's amazement, Gordon had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.Trevor was so proud of Gordon; he entered him in the Hertfordshire County Fair and Gordon became an overnight sensation among the judges.The result. The judges not only awarded Gordon the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.Clearly Gordon was a pullitician in the making: Who else but a pullitician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.Do you know a Pullitician called Gordon?

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

Last night sprog 1 drove us both down to Eastbourne Borough, AFC Wimbledon turned up in our league and without a doubt you could see why they had been promoted. Matching Borough at every move only both defences seemed to be as weak as each other.I have to admit that the goal by Neill Jenkins was a corker and would have defeated many better keepers.The best bit about the match is the atmosphere with (thanks a lot to the wombles for bringing over 1000 fans) we had a gate of 3107. Not a club record but a good start to the season and welcome finances.The crowd are a bit special, especially the north stand boys;

More weekend stalking planned, I will have to see what happens and if I can get onto some fox control on my pheasant wood as they seem to be in abundance again.

About Me

Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.